Archive for
May, 2011

On Sunday I reticently took myself to a new walk-in clinic (new to me, at least) and I was taken aback by something: people are really not the same and they can be really great!
Fancy that!!
It’s been a tough month or two (if u read my blog) and my experience at the clinic that day changed my perception of doctors and admin period.

So nice, so helpful, so…awesome.

I knew my boyfriend was someone extra-special from our first conversation (i asked him for the time and now months later we are stupid stupid happy and together =D) and he takes such great care of me that I thought no one could ever compare. Then i walked into The Albany Clinic and found out different, lol.

They rock and I love ’em so back off, j/k, but if you are in need of a new doc this is the place to go. I went to the walk-in but they all do rounds in the facility at large so come on down! : D

Sarah and me had a tasty sampler meal courtesy of the brand-spanking-new St.Louis location at 528 Yonge Street. Thing is, I’m not keen on pushing a new joint just ‘cuz they stuffed me ‘n my gal’s gobs but, in all honesty, if they can keep up the quality of the food we scarfed down last week, I’ll happily recommend the place.

The two headliners, wings and ribs, did well with me; the rack was tender and ensconced in a thick, smoky, ribby sauce (thumbs up), and the wings were crispy and properly spicy (thumbs up again). They weren’t breaded or really very saucy, two things that would bother me on wings of lesser quality, but it worked out well with these ones.

I would’ve liked to have washed our din-dins down with a pint of Rickard’s White but they weren’t quite stocked up ahead of the official opening today. They’re also working on the patio to get it down to legal dimensions, I’m told, so in the meantime the best you can do is sit in the big window facing Yonge. I could think of worse things.

Here’s what I like to plug my ears with on my way to work. They’re also a great idea for days like, well, all this week — rain, rain, and rainy. They are all Toronto (at least produced here) but, ironically, hardly contain any music at all.

I get the impression that Chris had made up his mind about this “Worst Buildings of Toronto” selection a long time ago. The sore-thumb slab that Humie affectionately refers to as “condominiums”, however, doesn’t jump to mind when I think of Bloor and Lansdowne. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I was out in that area; now I don’t care to remember.

“I don’t know what to say in its defense except that, I guess, that it provides housing for a large number of people”, is the only positive comment that the Chris offers. I would only add a voluminous barf sound of some sort to round off that review.

Chris doesn’t pull many punches with his third-worst Toronto building, Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management. Among the building’s most admirable traits he includes the facts that it’s on a busy downtown corner, it’s above a Canadian Tire, and has a parking garage. To me, this does not a good building make. In fact, this would barely qualify as a worthy parking lot.

However, Humie’s commentary describing the building as “a dog’s breakfast” is a little unfair, only insomuch as Ryerson is known for acquiring existing locations, usually individual rooms within buildings like Chris’ other favourite, the Toronto Life Square building. What I mean is that Ryerson’s not 100% responsible for the shape of the building, though their lack of follow-up aesthetic is something we can collectively laugh at. Or weep.

Contentious is a good word to describe the Toronto Life Square Building, a.k.a. 10 Dundas East. Typical lamentations include descriptions like “ugly”, “awful”, “disappointing”, and “my grandmother wouldn’t take a crap on this thing, and she wears diapers!”

The fact that Chris Hume chose this particular building for the number five slot in his “Worst Buildings of Toronto” list is kinda like saying, “I don’t like Hitler”, or “that Bin Laden guy was a jerk” — most people would tend to agree.

For me, the Toronto Life building isn’t the affront on North American culture that some people insist it is, but its thin, crowded interior with its centerpiece of narrow escalators is a total letdown after walking under that massive facade. I don’t know that this building would’ve made my own top-five-worst list, but Toronto could certainly do a whole lot better.